Show tri tah IV ay 44 J BY kyve R ca daany of by ova W va I 1 SYNOPSIS miss innes spinster and guardant guard an ot of gertrude and halsey estabi shed summer headquarters at Sunny sunnyside side amidst nu berous d fal ulyles the servants deserted As bitsi it sa innes locked up lot fot the night she was vms startled by a dark figure on the veranda she passed a terr ile 1 ie t which was filled nith unseemly no ses sea ir the morning miss innes found a strange link cuff button in a clothes hamper I 1 aertrude and halsey arrived with jack bailey the house was awak ened by a revolver shot A strange man was found to death in th the hall it proved to b the body of arnold arm strong whose banker father owned the country house M ss as innes found hal sey a revolver on the lawn he and jack bailey had disappeared the link cutt cuff button n disappeared de jamieson Jam leson and tl ti e coroner arrived gertrude revealed that she was engaged to jack bailey with whom ale sl e had talked in the b illard room a few mo ments before the murder ja jamieson aeson told miss innes that she was I 1 id ng g ev dence from him he imprisoned an intruder in an empty room the prisoner escaped down a laundry chute it developed that the intruder was probably a woman CHAPTER VII continued liddy I 1 called go through the house at once and see who Is missing or if any one Is well we 11 have to clear this thing at once mr air jamieson it if you will watch here I 1 will go to the lodge and find warner thomas would be of no use together you may be able to force the door A good idea he assented cut but there are windows of course and there is nothing to prevent whoever is in there from getting out that way then lock the door at the top of the basement stairs I 1 suggested and patrol the house from the out side we agreed to this and I 1 had a feeling that the mystery of sunny side was about to be solved I 1 ran down the steps and along the drive just at the corner I 1 ran full tilt into somebody who seemed to be as much alarmed as I 1 was it was not until I 1 had recoiled a step or two that I 1 rec gertrude and she me good gracious aunt hay ray she ex claimed what is the matter there theres s somebody locked in the laundry I 1 panted that is 18 unless you didn dian t see any one crossing the lawn or skulking around the house did youa I 1 think we have mystery on the brain gertrude said wearily no I 1 haven t seen any one except old thomas who looked for all the world as if he had been ransacking the pan try what have you locked in the laundry 7 9 I 1 cant can t wait to explain I 1 replied I 1 must get warner from the lodge if you came out for air you d better put on your overshoes and then I 1 no that gertrude was limping not much but sufficiently to make her progress very slow and seemingly painful TOU lou have hurt f I 1 said sharply I 1 fell over the carriage block she explained I 1 thought perhaps I 1 might see halsey coming home he ile he ought to be here I 1 hastened to the lodge where is warner I 1 asked I 1 I 1 think he s in bed ma am get him up 1 I said and for good ness sake open the door thomas wait for warner its it s kind 0 close in ili here ma am he said obeying gingrey and difelos ing a cool and comfortable looking in tenor perhaps you d keer to set on the porch an rest you self it was so evident that thomas did not want me inside that I 1 went in tell NN arner he is needed in a hur ry I 1 repeated and turned into the little sitting room I 1 could hear thomas going up the stairs could hear him rouse warner and the steps of 0 the chauffeur as he hurriedly dressed but my attention was busy with the room below on the center table open was a sealskin traveling bag it was filled with gold topped bottles and brushes and it breathed opulence luxury fern fem inanity from every inch of surface how did it get there 7 1 I was still ask ing myself the question when warner arner came running down the stairs and into the room he was completely but somewhat incongruously dressed and his open boyish face looked abashed he ile was a country boy absolutely frank and reliable of fair education and intelligence one of the small army of american youths who turn a natural aptitude for mechanics pes into the special field of the automobile and earn good salaries in a congenial occupation what is it miss innes he asked anxiously there Is some one locked in the laundry I 1 replied mr air jamieson wants you to help him break the lock warner whose bag is this he ile was in the doore ay by this time and he pretended not to hear warner I 1 called come back here whose bag Is this he stopped then but be he did not turn around it s it belongs to thomas he said and fled up the drive to thomas A london bag with mirrors and cosmetic jars of which thomas could not even hae hale guessed the use however I 1 put the bag in he back of my mind which waa was fast t coming stored with anomalous aud alid apparently irreconcilable facts aia a ia olio ollo N hect warner to the house lidda I 1 ad come back to the kitch en the door to the basement stairs was double barred and had a table pushed against it and beside her on the table was most of tl e kitchen pal apher nalia nalla did you see if there was any one in the house I 1 asked agnor ing the array of sauce pans rolling pins and the poker of the range rosie Is missing liddy said with unction she had objected to rosie the parlor maid from the start mrs watson went into her room and found she had gone without her hat people that tru trust t themselves a dozen miles from the city in strange houses with sen ants they dont don t know needa t be surprised if they wake up some morn ing and find their throats cut after which carefully veiled sar liddy relapsed into gloom war ner came in then with a handful of small tools and mr air jamieson went with him to the basement oddly eno agh I 1 was not alarmed with all my heart I 1 wished for halsey but I 1 was no not t fright frightened eneL at the door he was to force warner put down his tools and looked at it then he turned the handle without the slight est d faculty the door opened reveal ing the blackness of the drying room beyond mr jamieson gave an exclamation of disgust gone he said con found such careless work I 1 might have known it was true enough we got the lights on finally and looked all through the three rooms that con this wing of the basement everything was quiet and empty an explanation of how the fugitive had escaped injury was found in a heaped up basket of clothes under the chute the basket had been overturned but that was all mr jamieson examined the CHAPTER VIII taj other half of the link miss innes the detective began what Is dour our opinion of the figure you saw on the east veranda the night ou and our maid were in the house alone it was a woman I 1 said positively and yet your maid affirms with equal that it was a man nonsense I 1 brol e in liddy had her eyes shut she always shuts them when ashes she s frightened and you never thought then that the intruder who came later that night might be a woman the woman in tact fact whom you saw on the veran daa da I 1 had reasons for thinking it was a man I 1 said remembering the pearl cuff link now we are getting down to busl bust ness what were your reasons for thinking thata I 1 hesitated if you have any reason for bellev ing that your midnight guest was has mr air armstrong other than his visit here the next night you ought to tell me miss innes we can take nothing for granted if tor for instance the indru der who dropped the bar and scratched the staircase you 8 see ee I 1 know about that if this visitor was as a woman why should not the same woman have come back the following night met mr armstrong on the cir cular staircase and in alarm shot him it was a man I 1 reiterated and then because I 1 could think of no oth er reason tor for my statement I 1 told him about the pearl cuff link he ile was intensely interested will you give me the link he said when I 1 finished or atlease at least lehme let me r J I 1 I 1 J 0 k 1 but before we go on I 1 want to say this windows one was unlocked and of an easy escape the window or the doore which way had the fugi tive escaped 7 the door seemed most probable and I 1 hoped it had been so I 1 could not have borne just then to think that it was my coor ioor gertrude we ve had been hound ng through the daran ss and yet I 1 had met ger trude not far from that very cry v v aindow I 1 wert upstairs at last aird and depressed mrs watson and liddy were making tea in the kitchen in cartan m walks alks of life the tea pot Is 1 the refuge in times of stress trouble or sickness they give tea to the dying and they put it in the baby s buising bottle mrs wat watson waton on was fixing a tray to be sent in to me and when I 1 asked her about rosie she confirmed her absence she s not here she said but I 1 would not think much of that miss in ns rosie is a pretty young girl and perhaps she has a sweetheart it will be a good thing if she has the maids stay much better when they have something like that to hold them here gertrude had gone back to her room and while I 1 was ras drinking my cup of hot tea mr jamieson came in we might take up the conversation where we left off an hour and a halt half ago he said but before we go on I 1 want to say this the person who escaped from the laundry was a worn an with a foot of moderate size and well arched she wore nothing but a stocking on her right toot foot and in spite of the unlocked door she es by the window and again I 1 thought of gertrudes gerti udes ude s sprained ankle was it the right or tb the left see ra I 1 consider it a most imbor tant c ew won t the description doa not as well as the original well I 1 in very sorry I 1 said as calmly as I 1 could ir I 1 the thing is lost it it must have fallen out of a box on my dressing table whatever he tho ot of my exola nation and I 1 knew he doubted it he be made no sign HP ile me to de scribe tile link accurately and I 1 did so while he g alced at a list he took from his pocket one set monogram mono monog giam iain cufflinks cuff links he read one set plain pearl links one set cuff links woman s head set with diamonds and emeralds there is no mention of such a link as ou describe and yet if your theory is right mr armstrong must have taken back in his cuffs one complete cuff link and a half perhaps of the other the idea was new to me if it had not been the murdered man who had bad entered the house that night ahu had it been there are a number of strange things connected with this case the detective detect ve went on miss gertrude innes testified that she heard some one tumbling fumbling with the lock that the door opened abid at id that almost immedi abely the shot was fired now miss innes here Is he strange part of that mr air armstrong had no key hey with him there was no bey licy in the lock or on the floor in other words the evi dence points absolutely to this mr armstrong was admitted to the house from v within it Is Impo impossible I 1 broke in mr air jamieson Jam leson do you know what your words imply do you know that you are practically accusing gertrude innes of admitting that mana man not quite that he said with his friendly smile in fact miss innes I 1 am quite certain she did not but as long as I 1 learn only parts of 0 the truth from both you and her what can I 1 doa I 1 know you picked up something in the flower bed you refuse to tell me what it was I 1 know miss gertrude went back to the billiard room to get something she refuses to say what you suspect what happened to the cuff link but you wont won t tell me so tar far all I 1 am sure of Is this I 1 do not believe arnold armstrong was the midnight visitor who so alarmed you by dropping shall we say a golf stick and I 1 believe that when be did come he was admitted by some one in the house who knows it may have been liddy I 1 stirred my tea angrily I 1 have always heard I 1 said dry ly that undertakers assistants are jovial young men A man mans s sense ot of humor seems to be in inverse proper tion to the gravity of his profession A man mans s sense of humor Is a bar barous and a cruel thing miss innes he admitted it Is to the feminine as the hug of a bear pear Is to the scratch otwell ot of lwell well anything with claws Is thit you thomasa come in thomas johnson stood in the door way he ile looked alarmed and ampre and suddenly I 1 remembered the sealskin dressing bag in the lodee lodge thomas came just inside the dool and stood with his head drooping his eyes under their shaggy gray brows brovis fixed on mr jamieson Jam leson thomas said the detective not unkindly I 1 se sent t for you to tell us what you told sam bohannon at the club the day before mr arnold was fot feind nd here dead let me see you cime here friday night to see misi MIS ini luies es didn t youa and came to work ahre saturday morning 7 9 for some unexplained reason thomas looked relieved yas sah sall he eald said you see it were like this when mintah arm strong and the fam ly went away mis watson an me we was let lef in charge till the place was rented mis wat son she ve bin here a good while an she a so she in the house id I 1 d bin havin tokens I 1 tol mis nils innes some of em an I 1 alel in the lodge then one day mis wat son she came to me an she aez acs she thomas you 11 hev to sleep up in the big house I 1 m too nervous to do it any more but I 1 jes reckon to myself that ef its too f for er her its it s too f fer er me we bad had it then sho and it ended up with mis watson in the lodge nights an me lookin fer work at da del lub tub did mrs watson say that any thing had happened to alarm hera no sah sall she was jes nat chally well that was all far s I 1 know until the night I 1 come over to see mis innes I 1 come across the lalle allen along the path from the club house and I 1 goes home that way down in the creek bottom I 1 almost run into a man he ile auz with his back to me an be he was with of these yere electric light things that fit in yer pocket he ile was wa havin rouble trouble one minute it ltd d flash out an the nex it ltd d be gone I 1 he hel I 1 a view of Is white dress shirt an tie as I 1 passed I 1 didn dian t see his face but I 1 know it warn t mr arnold it waa was a taller man than mr arnold besides that mr arnold was carda cards when I 1 got to the club house same a he d been doln all day and the next morning you came back along the path pursued mr jamieson relentlessly the nex morbin mornin I 1 come bach back along mong the path an down where I 1 dun see the man night befog I 1 picked up this here the old man held out a tiny object and mr jamieson took it then he held it on his extended palm tor for me to see it was the other halt half of the pearl cuff cufflink link but 1 r jamieson Jam JamI leeon eFon was not quite through questioning him and EO po you snowed it to sam at the club and asked him it if he knew any one who owned such a link and am said val sam he lowed he bed d seen such a pair of cuff buttons in a shirt be longin to mr bailey balley mr jach jack bailey sah sall III keep this link thomas for a while A bile the detective said that s all I 1 wanted to know goodnight good night ks s thomas shuffled out mr jamieson watched me sharply you see miss innes he said mr 0 bailey insists on mixing himself with this thing it if mr bailey came here that friday night expecting to meet arnold armstrong and missed him if as I 1 say he had done this might he not seeing him enter the following night have struck him down ask bg u had intended but the I 1 gasped there could be motive proved I 1 think arnold armstrong and john bailey have been enemies since be latter a cashier of the traders bank b ought brought arnold almost into the clutches of the law also you tou for get that both men have been paying attention to miss gertrude bailey s flight looks bad too and you think halsey helped blia hija to 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